


We'll Get There

by lichcraft



Series: A Matter of Time and Space (The Shadowgast Collection) [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, But it's there, Caleb Widogast is a Mess, Everyone Is Gay, bc idk what im doing, beaujester is in the background, but im trying, fjorclay is also in the background
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22273924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lichcraft/pseuds/lichcraft
Summary: Everyone is gay, everyone is a mess, and no one knows what they're doing. But they're doing their best, despite it all.This fic is primarily shadowgast, but I'm trying my hand at beaujest and fjorclay too.
Relationships: Caduceus Clay/Fjord, Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre/Beauregard Lionett
Series: A Matter of Time and Space (The Shadowgast Collection) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1495613
Comments: 7
Kudos: 102





	1. And So It Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Since it's less than a week until the new semester starts, I'm back with a college au! Feel free to find me on tumblr (@ lich-craft ) & tell me your thoughts in the comments! Any and all feedback is appreciated :)

Caleb let out a relieved sigh as he stumbled his way through the front door of his dorm building, the warmth of the air settling into his shivering form. As he made his way towards the safety of his room, he mulled over the difference between the winters here and the winters back home. Not quite as harsh, snow-wise, but the wind could be brutal. He reached for his key, only to find that his door wasn’t latched. _Odd._ He didn’t leave it that way. He pushed the door open hesitantly, his nerves starting to flare up, when he was greeted with the sight of Beauregard sprawled out on his bed, one hand in a bag of chips, the other typing furiously on her phone. 

He should’ve known.

“You forgot your book earlier,” was her only acknowledgement of his entry. He frowned and began shrugging off his wet outerwear, glancing at the book she had returned to his desk. She looked at him, finally, and noticed his growing confusion.

“The door was unlocked when I got here, so I figured I’d eat some of your food as payment. Y’know, for bringing it back.”

Caleb was unimpressed, but also not surprised. He was pretty sure the chips were stale anyways.

“What class did you just have?”

“ _The History of Dunamis_ , with Professor Kryn. The one I unfortunately needed that book for. I ended up having to share with someone.”

Beau stared at him, unmoving, for what felt like ages. Caleb was starting to squirm under her gaze when she finally asked, very slowly, “That’s the class with the hot TA, right?”

The ensuing silence spoke volumes, and combined with the redness rising up his ears and creeping down his neck, Beau couldn’t just _not_ continue.

“Who’d you share your book with, then?” Her tone was so suspicious it was almost playful.

“...I’m not going to answer a question that you already know the answer to.”

She flashed a victorious grin, and he felt compelled to turn away and start rifling through his bag. He didn’t quite know what he was looking for, but it was keeping his face turned away from that evil glint in her eye, and that’s all that mattered. Before she could resume her interrogation, he managed to speak, feeling braver now that he couldn’t see her. 

“His name is Essek, and he is much more interesting than I had thought.”

Beau sat up further on the bed, social media and stale chips long forgotten. “You spoke to him? Like, really spoke to him? Like an actual, honest-to-gods conversa—”

“ _Ja,_ Beau, we talked.”

“Well, details, Widogast!” Caleb sighed.

“It was mostly about dunamancy and the classwork. But we also talked a little bit about other things, likes and dislikes. We both like magic. I have a cat. Those sorts of things,” Caleb was very careful to not sound too excited. Beau could still tell that he was, because it was Beau and she had a gift for noticing these things, but he still tried.

“Adorable,” Beau said, flatly. “And that’s it? You didn’t ask him out, didn’t flirt, nothing? Fuck’s sake, dude.”

At that, Caleb’s mouth twitched down. He finally turned back to look her in the eye. “And what progress have you made with Jester?”

Beau blushed at that, and avoided his gaze. But she said nothing. Caleb felt a prickle of pride. _Got you._

“Exactly. No complaining about my love life until you deal with yours.”

Beau went to open her mouth to defend herself, but her attention was drawn to rapid knocking at the door. Before Caleb could get up to answer it, already knowing who would be there, the door swung open. 

“ _Hellooooo,_ Caleb— oh! Hi Beau!”

Beauregard let out a soft, strangled noise before she managed to recover, schooling her features into something more nonchalant. It only lasted a moment, however, because Jester was then descending upon her for a big hug.

“ _Hallo,_ Jester. Please tell me you did not forget your book this time.” Caleb gave Beau a sly, smug look as he watched the panic momentarily take her over. She caught his look and flipped him off in response. Caleb’s expression was neutral once again as Jester emerged from her hug, the bag of chips in hand.

“I didn’t! And I remembered my laptop, too! _And_ I brought this _reeeaaaally_ cool book I found. It’s about this pirate that falls in— wait,” She shoved a handful of chips into her mouth, “ _wasf I innerupping?_ ” 

Caleb said “no” as Beauregard said “yes,” a wicked grin spreading over her face.

“You were, actually,” she continued, “because Caleb was just telling me all about how he finally managed to talk to that hot TA. Weren’t you, Caleb?”

Jester gasped, and she was on him in a second.

“ _Ohmygods,_ Cayyyleb, what did you guys talk about? Are you dating now? Did you make out? He looks like he’d be good at—”

“ _Nein,_ Jester, we are not dating. We just talked, because I had to share a book with him. I only just learned his name today.”

“Oooooooh, what’s his name? I bet it’s _sexy~!_ ”

Caleb sighed, finally resigning himself to his fate, and simply said, “Essek.”

Jester’s face lit up, and she whipped out her phone. “Essek Thelyss! He _is_ really hot. He’s my math tutor! That’s so crazy, I’m going to text him.”

Caleb’s stomach turned to lead as Beau cackled. “ _Nein,_ no no no, Jester, you don’t need to…” But he trailed off in horror as he watched her already-typing fingers finish and send the text.

“Great,” he said weakly, “now he will think I’m crazy. Or a pervert. And he will never speak to me again.”

The two girls ignored his moment of melodrama, instead deigning to read and reread the text that had just been sent. A moment later there was a _ding!_ and the two both froze, reading the response. Caleb buried his face in his hands, the dread rising in him with every passing second. Beau’s eyebrows shot up as Jester squealed and began typing again. Neither paid any attention to Caleb.

As he sat there on the floor, mapping out the floor plans to the hole he was going to live the rest of his life in, his pocket buzzed. He pulled out his phone, preparing to toss it away, when he suddenly froze at the text that had appeared. His phone buzzed again as another text came through.

_Hey Caleb, this is Essek. Jester gave me your number._

_I’m sorry if I’m being too forward, but I enjoyed talking to you, and I’m not sure I can wait until Monday to do it again. So… lunch, tomorrow?_


	2. It's a Date?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caleb actually meets up with Essek for lunch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, I've finally updated!
> 
> I've been thinking about it for a while now and like... I have high hopes for this fic but I'm not sure I have the patience/talent to see it through. So we'll see where this goes and how often I'm able to update. Maybe quarantine will drive me to it more often.
> 
> Anyways, Caleb and Essek go out. It's shorter than the last chapter, as a lot of it is dialogue and that's not really my strong suit, but it's something! I just hope I did them justice.

To say Caleb was nervous would be an understatement. He had been nervous for some of the time between getting Essek’s test and finally arriving at the agreed upon location, but it had quickly moved on from that into denial, then to giddiness, and now finally to a crushing void of anxiety and paranoia. It had taken a lot of reassurance to even get him off of the bathroom floor.

And speaking of reassuring things, the fact that he could see Jester and Nott “hiding” in the corner across the cafe wasn’t calming his nerves one bit. He knew that they were only trying to be supportive (“CALEB? On a DATE?” were Nott’s exact words) but the overwhelming approval and excitement that had rang out from the group chat after Jester let it slip had been nearly too much to bear already. A million thoughts were racing in his head, such as, _"_ _ What if I screw up? What if they’re getting excited over nothing? What if it isn’t actually a date?" _ which were all followed by the most terrifying one, _"_ _ What if it is?" _

He’d been on the verge of getting up and bolting to the bathroom, texting Essek some lame excuse or other to get him out of this, when the drow himself sat down in front of him.

“Essek,” Caleb breathed, throat tightening at the sight of him.

“Hello, Caleb. How have you been?” Essek smiled at him. Caleb was going to lose it.

“Oh, um,  _ gut _ . Pretty good. Not much to worry about lately, aside from Professor Kryn’s prelim coming up… ah, how are you, Essek?” Caleb was going to  _ lose it _ .

“Ah, yes, the prelim. I imagine it won’t be too terrible. And I’m doing lovely, thank you for asking.”

Caleb nodded, a grimace on his face, as the conversation lapsed into a horribly awkward silence. He tried desperately to think of something, anything to say that wouldn’t make him look like a fool, but Essek was already getting up.

“I just realized I’ve forgotten to order. Want anything?”

Caleb blinked at the offer, taken by surprise.  _ Did that mean he would pay, or that he would get it and I’d pay him back? Was I supposed to go up with him and order? _

“I’m not hungry,” he lied, “but thank you for offering.”

Nodding, Essek then left him to approach the counter. Caleb rubbed a hand over his face, feeling exhausted in more than just the physical sense. He was thinking too much.

A cup of hot tea was placed down in front of him. He looked up at Essek, bewildered.

“It was on the house,” the drow explained. “The firbolg working the counter asked me to bring it to you. ‘For your nerves,’ he said. I imagine you know him?”

“ _ Ja _ ,” Caleb said, “that’s Caduceus, a good friend of mine. His family owns this place and the funeral home just outside of town. They make their own teas.”

“That explains why you’re familiar with this place,” Essek said with a smile.

Caleb nodded again, and the silence loomed once more. Determined to not make Essek fill it this time, Caleb finally asked the question he’d been wondering since he got the text.

“Forgive me, but is this… a date?”

Essek didn’t even blink, simply asking back, “Would you like it to be?”

Caleb’s stomach churned, and he quickly took a sip of his tea in a desperate attempt to calm it.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “Mostly, yes. That would be amazing. But I’m not sure if I’m… ready, I guess? To really date anyone right now.” He paused, twisting his next question around in his mouth. “Do  _ you _ want it to be a date?”

Essek gave him a small smile. “I want it to be whatever you’re comfortable with. A date would indeed be wonderful, but if you’re not quite ready, it can be a casual meeting between friends. So that we could get to know each other.”

“I would not want to disappoint you—”

“And you would not be. I am a very patient man, Caleb, and being your friend is more of a priority than dating you. Like I said, we can take some time to get to know each other better first, until you may be more comfortable. Does that sound fair?”

“ _ Ja _ , that… that sounds good.” Caleb, for the first time all day, finally managed something that was more of a smile than a grimace.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page now. If you have anything else to ask, please feel free to, I’d rather you ask something potentially embarrassing but relevant than have you sitting there thinking it’s a stupid question.” At Caleb’s agreement, he smiled once more ( _ and damn was his smile pretty, why am I so bad at this _ —) and continued with, “Now, I’m not sure if you saw, but I think Jester has been taking pictures of us from across the room…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone in the comments! It warms my heart to see all your lovely words <3


End file.
